In Interview, Kerry Tries To Soften Image

He Says He Will Try To Introduce Himself To Voters Through His Acceptance Speech

July 25, 2004|By Jill Zuckman and Jeff Zeleny, Chicago Tribune

DENVER -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry declared America is neither safer nor stronger under President Bush's stewardship and said that when he accepts the party's nomination this week, he will urge Americans to ask themselves seriously whether they are satisfied with the nation's direction and place in the world.

The Massachusetts senator said in an interview that the Bush administration has pursued ideologically driven policies that have shattered global alliances, produced a burgeoning federal deficit and placed U.S. security in peril. He also dismissed White House claims that the war on terror has made America safer.

"Safer is not the test," Kerry said, sharply articulating his words as he pointed to a bound volume of the bipartisan commission's report on the Sept. 11 attacks. "The test is whether you've made America as safe as it can be and should be given the options we had available to us."

As Kerry launched his pilgrimage to the Democratic convention in Boston, beginning the journey late last week near his Colorado birthplace, he outlined how he intended to better introduce himself to voters through his acceptance speech, and he previewed themes for the fall campaign. In a conversation Friday in his hotel suite here, Kerry shied from the biting rhetoric that punctuates political rallies, choosing instead to portray his candidacy as a simple, positive choice.

"What Americans have to judge," Kerry explained, "is whether they're satisfied with where we are today versus where they think we can go."

With the intense spotlight of a national political convention, the moment is upon Kerry to make a deep impression on a divided electorate and work to convince voters he has the character, leadership skills and trustworthiness to become president. His military service, he said, is one chapter in his biography that enhances his readiness to serve in the Oval Office.

"I learned a lot personally about what happens when you're on the front lines carrying a gun, being asked to kill people for your country. Being shot at, you learn something about risk, about states, about duty and obligations," said Kerry, who was awarded three Purple Hearts for injuries sustained in Vietnam. "You learn a lot of questions to ask as a commander in chief before you put someone else in that predicament."

Despite Kerry's having served in Congress for 20 years, and before that gaining notoriety as a critic of the Vietnam War, public-opinion polls show voters are still getting to know him. Asked what he wants people to take away from the convention, Kerry promptly replied: "That I'm a strong leader who has a very clear vision for how we're going to make America stronger at home and respected in the world."

Since Kerry sealed the nomination in March, Republicans have spent millions of dollars trying to depict him as an unprincipled waffler who will say or do anything for political gain. As evidence of what they see as his untrustworthiness, they point frequently to his vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq, only to later vote against funding that war effort.

But Kerry says he thinks his strong leadership skills, which will be a central element of his Thursday-night acceptance speech, will appeal to voters in the general-election campaign. He said he is still writing the speech -- by hand, on a legal pad -- despite the presence of the top-flight team of wordsmiths on his staff who often labor into the night perfecting his campaign addresses.

"This is a very special moment where it's important that I'm speaking not from someone else's gut, but from my gut and from my heart, and I want to make sure that I am," Kerry said.

Throughout the interview, conducted under time constraints, Kerry harkened back to variations of four words: strong, safe, vision and leader. In a 23-minute session, one of a handful his campaign granted late last week, he said those words nearly four dozen times.

Kerry went to great lengths to articulate a positive message as his campaign attempts to fight back against accusations in a Bush television commercial that he is dark and pessimistic. While his running mate, John Edwards, at campaign rallies often raises questions about the president's truthfulness, drawing smiles from Kerry, he demurred when asked whether Bush has been a credible or trustworthy leader.

"I'm running a positive and constructive campaign," Kerry said with a smile, "and it's up to the American people to make their judgment about each of us."